Fault
by Ryou VeRua
Summary: When Atemu is gone, Yugi must take on not only the title, but the responsibilities of the King. Now that Rishid is dead, Yugi must help Malik retain his precious sanity that they had worked so hard to recover. [for contest Liberashipping, Implied past AxY


**Fault**

THIS PLOT IS ALL OVER THE PLACE!

It's a slice of life thing, by the way. Of his new crazy life I dreamed up, anyway.

Haha. XD I made the story sound much more exciting than it is. However, this might become a full blown story in the future, so maybe it will become more exciting. Who knows? And to my fellow contestants... I admit it! I did this all today, after school. I might have studied harder this weekend, and last week than I ever have in my life. :P

Yeah, Malik may seem OOC to some, but considering the situation, I don't think he's that much...

**Disclaimer:** I DON'T OWN.

* * *

The sun is setting on the horizon, painting the water of Domino harbor fiery orange, pastel purple, and every imaginable colour in between. The waves lap at the docks; seagulls call to each other in the distance. 

"Anzu," I say slowly, unable to look at her. "I..."

It is picture of romance.

"Yugi." Her voice is quiet, with a slight tremor. "I'm leaving tomorrow morning, for New York. You know that. I... I can't keep waiting for you."

I don't answer her. I can't. What am I supposed to say to that? Nothing that wouldn't sound incredibly selfish. I want her to stay, so badly, but she has her whole life ahead of her. She has almost reached her dream. What do I have?

I don't know anymore.

"Anzu," I say slowly, "I don't understand. I... I know you have to leave. But we can make this work, can't we? It - It isn't impossible!"

"Maybe we could have before. Now, though... You have a commitment. You can't look after us both, Yugi. It's not fair to either of us. He needs you more than I do. And... I think you need him more than you know."

I don't understand what she means. It was always her. Finally, I look back at her. Her eyes are wide, with the last light of the sun dancing in her eyes. The flickering lilac is particularly stunning. And yet... they are guarded. Sorrowful. It hit me hard. We both know how this will end.

"I-I," and the words fall out before I can stop them, "but I love you!" My eyes were burning. This wasn't what was supposed to happen. Anzu and I... After everything we had been through, I thought...

Her eyes were sparkling now, as the sun dipped lower and lower, and it was no longer just from the waning light. "Of course you do. I love you too, Yugi. I just think... it isn't in _that_ way. I love you as a friend, Yugi. I really hope that we can meet again soon."

-o-O-o-O-o-

Someone asked me, a long time ago, how I could stand taking care of Malik. I answered then, just as I would now, that Malik was actually a very sweet, kind person. I could only properly describe him as a child who had been forced through Hell and back. The fact that he can still smile is, to me, amazing.

Malik has been in my care for about a year now, and had first come into it a few months after his seventeenth birthday. It had all happened so suddenly. One day, Grandpa had answered an urgent phone call: there had been an accident in Egypt, Rishid and Malik were involved, yes, Isis would update them as soon as she found out more, and yes, she would try to calm down and believe that the worst hadn't happened.

Grandpa and I were on tenterhooks for the next few days. We both jumped to answer the phone when it rang, and I distinctly remember spending sleepless nights staring up at the ceiling, thinking, _God, please don't let anything happen to them. Please don't let anything happen to them. They've been through too much already. _

I had picked up the phone this time, a week later, when Isis finally phoned back. Though she had tried to hide it, I could hear her crying on the other end, and my heart stopped beating.

Rishid had been killed after a few of the old Ghouls had tried to attack Malik for revenge. He had been loyal to the very end.

"And Malik?" I had asked tentatively, frightened to hear the answer. He had been doing so well...

There was a moment of silence shared between us that seemed to last for a lifetime before she finally answered.

-o-O-o-O-o-

I shut the door quietly behind myself as I walk in, hanging up my jacket in the closet and carefully placing my shoes where they had been when I had left. It was necessary, especially tonight; though Malik acted normal most of the time, he was still a bit unstable. It was why my friends had stopped coming over lately, actually, and why we didn't bring Malik out with us anymore. Not that I go out very much anymore - often, when I had been out without Malik in my sight, I was seized suddenly with a blinding panic, wondering if he was okay.

When I turn back to the hallway, Malik standing there, leaning against the wall was definitely not what I was hoping to see.

"Yugi," he murmured. Though his voice was calm, after all the time I had spent with him I could hear the anxiety underlying his words. "Where were you? I didn't know you were going out tonight."

"Oh, sorry about that. I must have forgotten. Anzu called me earlier, and I went out to meet her."

"What for?"

I falter, wondering exactly what to say - what I was willing to admit to him, and to myself. "I... She's leaving for America, Malik. I had to say goodbye. And we broke up."

Malik's eyes truly became like amethysts for a moment: cold and hard. "Why did you break up?"

I can tell what he was thinking already, and even if it was true, I don't want to burden him even more. "No, Malik, it wasn't your fault. Please don't think such things." Crazy thoughts fly through my head. I want to run to him and hug him, and tell him to stop blaming himself for everything. I even want to kiss him like I had never been able to kiss Anzu. "Wait! Malik!" I shout desperately as he turns away.

He was already up the stairs, and there was a loud bang as he slammed the door behind him.

I lean against the wall for support as the weight of everything that had happened today crashes down on me. I had lost Anzu. I don't want to lose Malik as well. It was strange, thinking about what she had said. _I think you need him more than you know. _

-o-O-o-O-o-

"It has come back from the Shadows," she whispered.

-o-O-o-O-o-

From my mattress on the floor of my room, I can hear the noises clearly from my old bed beside me. I rub the sleep away from my eyes, struggling to form a clear thought in my head. When I make the connection, though, I sit straight up in my bed, almost paralyzed with fear.

Malik was thrashing on his bed, a flushed, moaning mass of blankets and limbs. I can feel the blood drain from my face. _Not again...! _I run to his side, horrified at the sight of the veins pulsing in the left side of his face. "Wake up, Malik!"

"Rishid... Rishid... Please come back...!" He chants this quietly, writhing all the while. Seeing him like this always makes me sick, but now spasms of true fear were shooting through me like lightning.

"Malik! You have to wake up! _It's not your fault!_"

"_RISHID!"_ The scream echoed around the room as Malik started sobbing, his face twisted and stretched. I do hug him this time, tightly and to my chest, easing him out of the nightmare with the same words: 'It's not your fault, Malik... It's alright... There was nothing you can do...'

Finally, he looks up, his face stained with tear tracks and his eyes swollen and red. Malik longer felt humiliation when he found himself awake in my arms after a particularly frightening dream. Pride meant nothing to him anymore. He was truly a broken man "Yugi..."

I answer him before he can finish. "Of course I won't leave you. I never will."

Malik gives me a watery smile and, surprising me, leans up and kisses my cheek. I guess it was all the energy he had, though, because he plops right back onto my lap and Malik is asleep the minute his head touches.

It is at that moment that I see what Anzu had seen. I look down at Malik, and I realize that if something else ever happened to him, I might find myself in a situation quite similar to his. This slowly developed love I had for him crept up on me and had me before I was even aware of it. We really did need each other right now. I would never give up on him; I would be with him until he got better, even if he never got better, and forever after as well. I would make sure that he was freed from these negative emotions and memories forever.

And there was only one true way to liberate Malik from his grief, sorrow and self-hate, wasn't there?

Love.

* * *

This was surprisingly angsty. Of course, I really do think that's what may-ish happen if Rishid is ever killed because of something Malik did in the past. Can you imagine how much it would eat at him? And I bet (Yami no) Marik is just waiting... 

Psh. Like he was actually banished. XP

If I go into a full story with this, I'll explain more about what happened in the past... and stuff... Review please? ; Support the very rare pairing?


End file.
